Aiming to bridge the gap between start ups or small enterprises and a wide spectrum of investors, Shekra has a special focus on upgrading the success rate of start ups in the region to cope with global standards," said the company.

Commenting on the findings, Steve Sellwood of Selectabase put forward a number of reasons for the growth: "even in times of recession, there's obviously still plenty of start up activity, often as a result of redundancy, or the need to generate additional household income," he said, "but can't discount the effect of shows like Dragon's Den and The Apprentice in encouraging entrepreneurship," added Sellwood.

DIC and DOZ are a part of Tecom Investments and are home to 1,600 business partners, which includes over 60 per cent of Fortune 500 companies in the software, hardware, internet services and IT companies category, as well as multinationals, local SMEs and start ups.

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